Home Donate New Search Gallery Reviews How-To Books Links Workshops About Contact Nikon 200mm f/4 AI-s How to Shoot Macro Best Macro Lenses Intro Specs Performance Usage Compared Recommendations Nikon 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR AI-s (metal 52mm filter thread, FX, DX and 35mm coverage, 29.1 oz./824g with collar but without caps, about $200 used). enlarge. I got this one from this direct link to it at eBay (see How to Win at eBay). This all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Thanks for helping me help you! Ken.
April 2020 Better Pictures Nikon Reviews Nikon Lenses Nikon Flash All Reviews Nikon 200mm Lens Center Sharpness Compared Nikon 200mm Corner Sharpness Compared Why fixed lenses take better pictures
Other Nikon 200mm f/4 lenses: 200mm Micro-NIKKOR AF-D (1993-today, AF) 200mm f/4 AI-s (1981-1996) 200mm f/4 AI (1977-1981) 200mm f/4 Q (1961-1976)
Ideal Uses Perfect general-purpose close-focusing tele for film and FX, not much bigger or more expensive today than the regular 200mm f/4 AI-s. Superb as a low-cost FX macro lens, too.
Not for Not the best lens for macro product shots due to lateral color fringing at close distances. The current 200mm f/4 AF-D is far superior, and oddly, this AI-s lens has no problems at normal non-macro distances.
Introduction top Intro Specs Performance Usage Compared Recommendations
Compatibility History Production The Nikon 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR AI-s is precision incarnate. It is the world's first 200mm micro lens. Everything about it says precise. The focus is out-of-this-world: one finger is enough to flick the focus ring, which feels as if it's floating on air, from infinity to 1:2. This 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR uses internal focusing, so nothing moves externally as focused. It's a great lens for anything, however if you're shooting products with black-and-white graphics in the closest macro range and looking closely, you'll see some red-blue color fringing on sharp outlines at the sides. Optics are excellent otherwise, and the mechanical quality of this piece is fantastic.
This manual-focus Nikon 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR AI-s works great with most Nikon cameras, film and digital. It works flawlessly with every manual focus Nikon ever made, from the F of 1959 through the FM3a and today's FM-10. On the D3X, D3s, D3, D700, D300, D200, D2 and F6, use the "Non-CPU Lens Data" menu option to set 200mm and f/4 to get full color matrix metering, EXIF data and finder read-out of set aperture. It works great in aperture-preferred as well as manual modes on these cameras. It works perfectly on every professional film camera (F, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6), and adds Matrix metering on the FA, F4 and F6. The meters of cheaper digital (D90, D5000 and below) and cheaper film cameras (N80 and below) will not couple (or work at all) with this lens, so you'll be on your own guessing exposure using the rear LCD or an external meter, or get a tiny Gossen Digisix meter and adapter to meter manually. See Nikon Lens Compatibility for details on your camera. Read down the "AI, AI-s" column for this lens.
1978-1982 This 200mm Micro-NIKKOR was available in its first AI version. It has a thinner tripod collar and a wider aperture ring than the AI-s version shown here. It is identical optically.
1982-2005 The AI-s version shown here is a minor cosmetic update from the AI version, with the same optics. The sample shown here is from the middle of 1990.
Nikon made about 40,000 of these 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR lenses, 20,000 each of the AI and then the AI-s version.
Specifications top Intro Specs Performance Usage Compared Recommendations Name Nikon calls this the Nikon Micro-NIKKOR 200mm f/4 AI-s IF. IF means internal focusing; nothing moves externally as focused.
Optics top Nikon 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR AI-s. enlarge. 9 elements in 6 groups. IF: Internal Focusing. Multicoated, called Nikon Integrated Coating (NIC).
Diaphragm top Nikon 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR AI-s. enlarge.
9 straight blades. Stops down to f/32.
Aperture Ring top Yes. Metal. Full-stop clicks.
Close Focus top 2.34 feet. 0.71 meters.
Working Distance top 19.5" (500mm), hood retracted, at 1:2.
Maximum Reproduction Ratio top 1:2
Hard Infinity Focus Stop? top Yes. This is great for astronomy; just turn to the stop and you have fixed laboratory-perfect focus all night.
Focus Scale top Yes.
Depth-of-Field Scale top Nikon 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR AI-s. enlarge. Yes, but only two little ticks for f/32.
Infra-Red Focus Index top Yes: red dot in depth-of-field scale.
Filter Thread top 52mm, metal. Does not rotate or move, ever.
Tripod Collar top Removable tripod collar: Nikon 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR AI-s Tripod Collar. enlarge.
Nikon 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR AI-s Tripod Collar. enlarge.
Nikon 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR AI-s without Tripod Collar. enlarge.
Size top Nikon specifies 172mm extension from flange (180mm overall) by 66mm (AI-s) or 67mm (AI) diameter.
Weight top AI-s version (1978-1982) 29.060 oz. (823.9g), with collar but without caps. Lens alone: 22.382 oz. (634.6g). Tripod Collar: 6.680 oz. (189.35g). Nikon specifies 28.2 oz. (800g).
AI-s version (1982-2005) Nikon specifies 26.1 oz. (740g).
Hood top Built-in short telescoping hood.
Case top CL-36.
Made in top Japan.
Teleconverters top TC-301 and TC-14B. Nikon warns of potential vignetting with the TC-14A, and says to forget it with others.
Packaging top Gold-foil box, foam innards.
Nikon Product Number top 1468.
Price top This 200mm Macro was always a $1,000 lens when new.Used today, it's a screaming bargain.
* At full NYC discount. Very few people bought their lenses this inexpensively back then. ** USA/gray.
Performance top Intro Specs Performance Usage Compared Recommendations Overall Focus Bokeh Color Distortion Ergonomics Falloff Filters Color Fringes Mechanics Sharpness Sunstars
Overall performance top The 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR AI-s is optically and mechanically superb, except for lateral color fringes at macro distances — whoops!
Focus performance top Manual focus is a dream. It's as smooth as silk, perfectly damped and has no play. It flicks from infinity to 1:2 in 300º of rotation with one finger. It's perfectly geared for macro use, but for normal distances, I find the focus too fast. The non-macro 200mm lenses are geared much more slowly for more precise focus over a more restricted range. The D3, D3X, D3s, D700, F4, F5, F6 and most professional AF cameras have three very precise electronic manual focus indicators, with which this lens works perfectly. Lesser digital cameras, like the D300s and down, usually have just one "OK" focus dot, which is not as precise as two arrows and a dot.
Bokeh performance top Bokeh, the character of out of focus areas, not simply how far out of focus they are, is excellent. Backgrounds never distract. Here are complete full-frame images with the lens focused at 3 meters (10 feet) with vegetation at 10 meters (30 feet):
Color Rendition performance top The color rendition seems the same as all my other modern NIKKORs.
Distortion performance top The Nikon 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR has minor pincushion distortion. It can be corrected by plugging these figures into Photoshop CS2's lens distortion filter. These aren't facts or specifications, they are the results of my research that requires hours of photography and calculations on the resulting data.
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Ergonomics performance top Nikon 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR AI-s. enlarge. The Nikon 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR's ergonomics are perfect. The tripod collar comes off for normal shooting. If you use a pro camera like the D3S or F5, you'll probably need an AH-5 tripod adapter to attach your tripod to the collar itself in order for the battery compartment of your camera to clear your tripod. Don't worry if you can't score an AH-5; this lens is so light that you can bolt the camera directly to the tripod safely.
Falloff (darkened corners) performance top In actual photography, falloff on FX is just about invisible at f/4, and gone by f/5.6. It won't be an issue at all on DX (see crop factor). I've exaggerated this by shooting a gray field and placing these on a gray background.
Filters, Use with performance top There is no problem with vignetting, even with combinations of thick filters.
Lateral Color Fringes performance top On a D3, there are visible lateral color fringes on the sides at macro distances. At normal distances, there are none, and I doubt any of these would be visible at all on film. This is too bad, since it makes this lens much less useful to me as a macro lens, since for my product shots, color fringes become obvious. Here's a complete FX image: LEICA SUMMARON 3.5cm f/3.5 (1958).
And here's the lower side enlarged: LEICA SUMMARON 3.5cm f/3.5 (1958). Oddly, these go away at normal non-macro distances.
Mechanics performance top Nikon 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR AI-s. enlarge. Like all Nikkor manual focus AI-s lenses, the Nikon NIKKOR 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR AI-s is built to the highest mechanical standards of any lens ever made.
Barrel Exterior Anodized and enameled aluminum.
Filter Threads Anodized aluminum.
Hood Threaded anodized aluminum, internal flocking.
Focus Ring Metal, rubber covered.
Focus Helicoids I'm unsure if this IF Micro-NIKKOR uses helicoids, or more likely, cams. The focus is like melted butter: smooth and silky with no play or need for damping grease.
Depth-of-Field Scale Engraved into barrel and filled with orange paint for f/32 (AI-s version). Engraved into barrel and filled with green paint for f/32 (AI-s version).
Internals All metal.
Aperture Ring Cast aluminum, anodized and enameled. Engraved markings filled with paint coded to the depth-of-field scale.
Mount Dull-chromed brass.
Markings Engraved into the metal and filled with paint.
Identity and Serial Number On front of lens outside the filter ring. Engraved into the metal and filled with paint.
Ass-Gasket (dust seal at mount) No.
Noises When Shaken Mild clicking from the diaphragm blades and actuation system.
Made in Japan.
Sharpness performance top Warning 1: Image sharpness depends more on you than your lens. Warning 2: Lens sharpness doesn't mean much to good photographers.
With those caveats, the 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR AI-s is quite sharp. See examples for yourself at Nikon 200mm Lens Center Sharpness Compared and Nikon 200mm Corner Sharpness Compared
It's sharp even wide-open at f/4. It gets only slightly sharper as stopped-down to f/8, and then diffraction limits performance more than the optics themselves at the smaller apertures.
Sunstars performance top With its straight 9-bladed diaphragm, the 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR should make magnificent 18-pointed sunstars on bright points of light.
Usage top Intro Specs Performance Usage Compared Recommendations The effective f/number becomes slower as one focusses more closely. Here is a table of the expsure corrections to make, but only make them if you are unsing an external exposure meter. For most people using modern cameras with built-in meters, these are all calculated automatically. Nikon 200mm f/4 Micro Exposure Factors.
Compared top Intro Specs Performance Usage Compared Recommendations
See also Best Macro Lenses Compared.
Sharpness See sharpness comparisons for yourself at Nikon 200mm Lens Center Sharpness Compared and Nikon 200mm Corner Sharpness Compared
Comparison Table
Recommendations top Intro Specs Performance Usage Compared Recommendations This Nikon 200mm f/4 Micro-NIKKOR AI-s was Nikon's most exotic macro lens for decades. It was the dream of every insect photographer. Today it sells for a song. Pay five times as much for the hulking AF-D version if you need to split pixels at the sides in the macro range, otherwise for your FX or film camera, this exotic is available used today for less than the price of my last CF card.
Deployment top I'd leave either a 52mm Nikon Clear (NC - UV) filter, or a 52mm Hoya Super HMC UV on the lens at all times. I'd pitch the flat Nikon cap that came with this lens and get a new 52mm "pinch" type cap, too. I'm not kidding: the new fatter caps are much easier to use in the field. If I was working in nasty, dirty areas, I'd forget the cap, and use an uncoated 52mm Tiffen UV filter instead. Uncoated filters are much easier to clean, but more prone to ghosting.
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05 Apr 2020, 2013, August 2010